Also showing, March 3

Notably faithful: The Gospel According to Matthew (Moviestore Collection/Rex Features)

The Gospel According to MatthewU, 137 mins
Films about the life of Christ tend not to make big changes to the official
storyline, but Pier Paolo Pasolini’s version is still notably faithful:
every scene, and every word spoken, is from St Matthew’s gospel. The film
thus comes across as a series of dramatised illustrations, rather than a
full-bodied movie, but those illustrations certainly make an impression.
They still look bold and modern, even though the idea of applying desolate
black-and-white minimalism to Bible stories is less startling now than it
was when Pasolini did it in 1964. The film’s rerelease is part of a season
of the director’s movies that runs at BFI Southbank through March and
April. EP